Toni turns 'devil' for incredible debut win.

Toni Elias rode the race of his life at Estoril on Sunday, beating five-times MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi in a photo finish to claim his first ever victory - and podium - from eleventh on the grid!

The 23-year-old looked certain to lose his job after a disappointing 2006 season, in which Fortuna Honda team-mate Marco Melandri had won three races, but Elias had only managed a best finish of fourth - leaving him tenth in the championship standings heading into the Portuguese Grand Prix.

But Elias rode 'like a devil', in the words of Rossi, on Sunday - spectacularly charging up the order as he threw his RCV sideways under braking and took extravagant outside lines through the corners. Race leading Camel Yamaha team-mates Rossi and Colin Edwards had been sitting pretty after Dani Pedrosa torpedoed his championship leading team-mate on lap five but, by the halfway point of the 28 laps, Elias had caught them both - with Kenny Roberts in his own wheeltracks.

Elias led briefly on lap 22, but choked slightly at leading his first ever MotoGP, allowing Rossi - and Roberts - to squeeze past. But Elias kept in touch and as the last lap began launched an incredible outbraking move into turn one, passing both Roberts and Rossi.

The Italian fought back at the hairpin, and Rossi was still leading as he exited the last corner for the final time - but Elias locked onto the M1's rear wheel before pulling out of the slipstream and beating Rossi by just 0.002secs!

"It still has not sunk in that I've won my first MotoGP race; I just can't believe it," explained Elias, a former double 250cc winner in Estoril. "I made a good start and over the first few laps felt very comfortable on the bike. I was behind Colin and realised that he was holding me up, so I pushed hard to get past him. I pushed until I closed up on Valentino and then passed him to lead a MotoGP race for the very first time.

"The next lap I made three errors all at once and I decided not to risk too much by trying to get past him again at that stage. I felt very comfortable at the first corner all race and was able to out-break people and so I did not want to let the opportunity pass on the final lap. At no time did I give up, that's my riding style. I want to thank the team for the great job they have done and thank all the fans that came to see the race. I still can't believe it," added the stunned Spaniard.

But the victory had even larger connotations for the championship since, if Rossi had won, the Italian could have taken a virtually unbeatable 13-point lead over Hayden into the Valencia season finale. Instead the gap is eight points, less than the difference between first and third, and Hayden admitted he was cheering on Elias 'more than his own parents could have been' during the closing laps.

It now remains to be seen if Elias's Estoril efforts will be rewarded by Honda with a new 2007 contract.